Posts [ 1 to 25 of 33 ]

Topic: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

I know that it's been quite a while since major DP update. Actually it hasn't been that long but we all have been spoiled from Bâshrat the Sneaky's quick update.

I just installed xp on a dell laptop. Darn CD I made could not pick up ALOT of drivers and I had to manually download and install them.

After finishing the installation, I've came to realize how much grateful I should be to Bâshrat the Sneaky and his tremendous work. Reality might strike us sooner than we think. Bâshrat the Sneaky will have more of his personal business to take care and he will have less and less time spared for DP Project. I just downloaded ATI Cat6.7 driver and compared it with DP_GraphicA6.08 and the structure is much more complex than I thought, meaning I and probably many of you will be helpless when Bâshrat the Sneaky drops this project.

Some of you might feel frustrated waiting long time but trust me, Beta testers and Bâshrat the Sneaky is working as hard at every spare second they have.

I'm sure Bâshrat the Sneaky will release his work pretty soon, and I'm also sure some bugs will appear. But we should not be blinded from the time and devotion they put into making this project one of best and most needed neccessary. Even though it might be just words, we should always say 'thanks, thank you in advance' , show some appreciation, show that we really care about this. Word can be a powerful tool. We can also help by donating money. We have 381 members right now and if each of us donate 'only' $1, Bâshrat the Sneaky will have more than enough for months of hosting or some hardware he might need, or few beers for his spare time. Don't Think 'well, someone else will...' You're the one using DP then you should show appreciation.

That was just my thoughts

I mean no offense nor am I urging members to donate, but I think we really can become a great community whose members care and help each other.

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

I'm pleasantly surprised, larciel

It's indeed the case that it seems easy in the end, but under the hood it's quite often very complex. For example DriverPack MassStorage, on which I'm working now. RogueSpear, the poor guy, had to hear a rant from me about my frustration with nVidia's crappy drivers, and Intel is turning to the same dark path... 3ware drivers aren't the best either. And not to speak about Promise.Hey, that's another rant... Let's just say this project is often VERY frustrating while getting almost nothing in return.

Kind words are nice. Kind words are necessary when doing this kind of donationware project (not receiving many donations either, that might have been a stimulus). But so is some money. You can all scream money is not the most important thing. I agree. But without money you couldn't live either. Put yourself in my place. Would YOU undertake this kind of project, if you would only get kind words and enough money to buy something small every now and then?

To elaborate: my vacation has been spartan, I might say. I've had two weeks of summer job, during which I've been working on the new DriverPacks BASE every single night. I went out once or twice a week. Then there's been three weeks of 'vacation', i.e. enough time to work more than fulltime on the DriverPacks. I've been out several times, at nights, but have been working from 7-9 am to 22-23pm in general. For three weeks. That's exhausting, trust me. (A big thanks to my testing team is in its place here: they have made it alot easier and pleasant for me, and have definetely sped up things.)

If donations will go up short after the release, nothing will change. But if that does not happen, I will have to put ads online. Initially for everyone, but I'll work on removing them for those who have taken the effort of donating.

I do not plan on abandoning this project though. Definetely not.

P.S.: if someone who's into webvertising reads this, please contact me. I have to get a Google Adsense account but they seem to be denying my application...

@lieblingsbesuch: yes, I've made it so that 'B T S' (without the spaces), will be replaced by BÃ¢shrat the Sneaky. Easier for me, easier for everyone who finds it. You're the first! Congratulations

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

Hi Bashrat,

even though you say you will not abandon this project, one day you may be forced to do just that or how will you be able to attend to a full time job, a family (or even just partner) and maybe some friends while still updating your driverpacks on a regular basis. I know from personal experience that sometimes projects like these have to die because there is just not enough time and because personal interests shift towards other things ...

You might consider two solutions if you care about the project (which I am sure you do). To the community: before I say this, please donÂ´t hate me for doing so, it is just a suggestion ! ;-)

First solution could be to go professional with your project. You donÂ´t have to sell it for hundreds of bucks but if you feel that 20.- (just some number) is fair (I do), then charge it. If that is too little, you might do a combination of charging and online ads. After all, why not ? You offer a service and people need it so ...

Second solution: Go open source so that other people can work on this together with you. If you donÂ´t have time, maybe someone else has. This project is too valuable to depend on one person if you ask me. ( this is no accusation towards you, Bashrat. You are wonderful. But as said above, who knows if you will have time for this project forever ? )

Just my 2 cents ...

By the way ... I would donate but paypal is not my thing at all. Had a very bad experience with them and have ignored them since. Maybe their service improved in the meantime but I was very angry at them once ...

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

What people care about most here are the driver packs themselves. The majority of users here utilize DriverPacks to create UWXP CDs, and a fringe amount for other OSes. Just speaking freely here; I personally would rather have constantly updated driver packs with the older version of base than the situation as it is now. The new version of base is a tremendous undertaking, I don't think anybody expected how big an undertaking the project would amount to and how it has thrown a wrench into driver pack updates. It is obvious Bâshrat the Sneaky deserves all the praise (and $$$) for the work he has done. If this were to become a professional service that people shall pay for, I would more likely pay for a continuously updated driver pack set than a more slick integration tool with less frequent driver pack updates.

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

@midiboy & Fragbert: obviously, if there would be a professional (paid) product, then that (continuous DriverPacks updates) would be one of the many new requirements. And Fragbert, it's been working for a while already, but I just wanted it to be completely bugfree before this next version would be used by every one.Better slow and then deliver something that's working smoothly from the first release I don't mind that you prefer the old DriverPack Sound B, but you have to admit that there were continuously bugfixes for it. There have been several times that I had to put a new version online every single day. Would you accept that, as a user who has paid for a professional product? I couldn't live with that anymore. Hence the rather drastic change.Now there are still releases every day (or once every couple of days), but with a more complex, yet more manageable codebase that offers more features and is easier to use. And the main difference is that I won't annoy EVERY user by the untested versions, but just those that would like to participate more close with the development (thanks again, my dear beta testers ). This way, I get less useless and timeconsuming 'noobish feedback' and more well-formed, positive critics, which again help to deliver better first releases.

I will soon be focussing on the web-end of this project. That means: one user to rule them all (forum, bugtracker, automated 'DriverPacks donor' status when made a donation), online documentation and tutorials, better website. That's on the frontend. The backend should include managing of downloads and - more importantly - the start of a truly automated drivers library. It's going to be a very complex undertaking, at first. The database structure must be completely be on paper before I start coding it: there are so many inner relationships to take note of.

I guess that last paragraph was some sort of sneak preview. I won't place ANY estimates on when it'll be ready, since a) I'm not being paid and b) I'm really bad at making estimates .

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

the 3rd party driver section has some X64 packs.sold the old rig that ran x64, and have to "unpunk" my royale.(it got stripped of drives, because I need some drive cooling in those bays. And I do not want to dremel visible holes into the alu case... OTOH, fans make less noise when you have almost unimpeded inlets/outlets with much quieter grilles)

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

hi

a lot of work is being put in the open-sourcing of the slipstream tool and driverpacks.I cannot speak for Bâshrat the Sneaky, but what I see happening now is promising.The source of the tools are looked at, and requests that would have been never implemented stand a good chance of getting online in an improved product. new 32bit driverpacks are being tested right now.

ALAS, where are the 64 bit drivers?I have licences for two X64 Pro versions, but some of the drivers for the machines I test on have still not passed WHQL.Vista X64 won't even accept the winders X64 pro drivers...We've a long wait to go...I hate it as much as you do, and would like all X64 and vista X64 testers to share the links to drivers that work in their systems.

chipset vendors often post generic drivers, but you all know Mobo makers can change design, and their 'old' drivers found on their CD's and sites may work for their implementation, and the newer ones... sometimes don't.

help the project by helping yourself?One of these days there is going to have to be an X64 section anyhow.I guess so, since Vista is getting rolled out.

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

I am a total noob, so please dont hit the asker´s mouth. Still, i want to get smarter, wanna learn, if i´m capable of course . I understand something about the inf and sif files from which that driverpacks can be called.

Em..ok, let me get it straight from wood and painted red. WHAT is this 'stability'? As i understand from this topic here...if a new driver version is being release, you have to delete previous & copy the newer version files to the respective folder of the respective driver pack. My questions are...does the new driver have to be tested by WHQL when the manufacturer has already tested it? Do the manufacturers make crap with their drivers or is there something about the way drivers are found by the system or... Yeah, what do i guess here, what do i know about it

I may be replying to myself now, but does the new driver if it´s found have to be tested for every single piece of electronic board, it is ment for? There are hundreds of different models maybe, that a single driver would run. Do i understand it correctly?

Re: Are you frustrated waiting for the DP release?

Well, WHQL status doesn't mean what it used to unfortunately. Do you honestly think M$ tests those drivers on every conceivable hardware combination? I don't! Besides, the WHQL status means those drivers were tested "as packaged". We don't redistribute those drivers as the manufacturer intended, so we incur additional testing hours. Besides, have you seen some of the nvidia drivers that got WHQL'd? h*ll, M$ even granted WHQL to BETA drivers! WTF?

Sometimes a vendor will release drivers for 4 or 5 HWIDs, but we know they'll work with about 50 HWIDs, so we need to test the remaining 45 HWIDs to ensure stability.That's the nature of the beast.